NASCAR Cup

Sears Point: Jimmie Johnson preview

Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe's Team head to Infineon Raceway this weekend for the series' first road-course event of the season. With only one top-five finish at the 1.99-mile track, Johnson hopes to improve his resume there, one of only ...

Published: Jun 18, 2008, 10:55 PM

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Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe's Team head to Infineon Raceway this weekend for the series' first road-course event of the season.

With only one top-five finish at the 1.99-mile track, Johnson hopes to improve his resume there, one of only seven venues in which the back-to-back champion hasn't gone to victory lane.

Johnson competed in the Rolex 24 Grand Am Sports Car event at Daytona's 3.56-mile, 12-turn speedway in January. Johnson finished second in the No. 99 Lowe's/Gainsco Pontiac Riley with teammates Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser.

JOHNSON:

DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE ON THE ROAD COURSES NOW? "I do. Sonoma is one of the tougher tracks for me. I love road course racing. I run the Rolex events and do all that other stuff on the side and really enjoy it and run well, but I just haven't figured out Sonoma yet. But this year I'm feeling good about it and we'll get out there and see what happens."

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT SONOMA THAT YOU STRUGGLE WITH? "If I knew the answer, it would be nice. It seems that we can run a fast lap for qualifying and be competitive on the short runs, but keeping the rear tires on the car is the hard part for me. I'm thinking I'm probably a little impatient and burn the rear tires off, so I'll work on that when we get out there and hopefully we'll be competitive in the long haul."

RACE NOTES:

Infineon Raceway

* Johnson has made six starts at Infineon Raceway, collecting one top-five and two top-10 finishes.

* The 1.99-mile road course is one of only seven NASCAR tracks in which the back-to-back champion hasn't visited victory lane.

* He has completed 98.9% (653 of 660) of competition laps there.

* Johnson has an average start and finish of 24.3 and 20.0.

Chassis

* Johnson will drive chassis No. 442 in Sunday's road-course race, the same chassis he piloted to a third-place finish at Watkins Glen International last fall. The backup chassis will be No. 419.

-credit: hm

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